So most years the Combine has a token player from D-II and/or an NAIA school.

Here's my suggestion for this year's NAIA token. Jordan Green, an American (from Lincoln, NE) redshirt Sr. forward, who can also play MF, from Hastings (NE) College. He's listed as 6-2, 170 Here are his stats.

I know it's NAIA and the level isn't that high, but 88 in a college career is just a bucket load and his assist numbers are pretty good, too. And doing well in the PDL shows he is capable of producing outside the NAIA.

Not saying he'll be as good as fellow NAIA product Steve Lenhart (though he has a similar build and similar bio - Lenhart also won an NAIA title), but his productivity, doing it for a championship calendar team and playing well in the PDL should earn him an invite to the Combine to see if he can hang with the D-I prospects.

List is fine I got 49 of the 54 in my own top 100 including goalkeepers Brad Stuver, Larry Jackson, Daniel Withrow especially when Alex Blackburn and Jordan Godsey are also available.

They missed a few highly regarded defenders Barson, Konstanski and Wiet and I'm wondering if the MLS realize what crap seasons Marc Cintron and Jonathan Mendoza had this year. Also the Machael David thing kills me the guy was highly touted in 2009 and has been injured since and even at his best he'll be 24 in 2013 a 5'8 a midfielder with 12 shots in 66 college games and arguably UCSB was better off when he wasn't playing in the side.

Overall I'd say the selection was lazy but at the same time a good representation of what NCAA D1 had to offer this season.

List is fine I got 49 of the 54 in my own top 100 including goalkeepers Brad Stuver, Larry Jackson, Daniel Withrow especially when Alex Blackburn and Jordan Godsey are also available.

They missed a few highly regarded defenders Barson, Konstanski and Wiet and I'm wondering if the MLS realize what crap seasons Marc Cintron and Jonathan Mendoza had this year. Also the Machael David thing kills me the guy was highly touted in 2009 and has been injured since and even at his best he'll be 24 in 2013 a 5'8 a midfielder with 12 shots in 66 college games and arguably UCSB was better off when he wasn't playing in the side.

Overall I'd say the selection was lazy but at the same time a good representation of what NCAA D1 had to offer this season.

Click to expand...

Barson and Wiet are Columbus Crew homegrown prospects ... likely to sign HG contracts with them, probably why they are not on the list

Barson and Wiet are Columbus Crew homegrown prospects ... likely to sign HG contracts with them, probably why they are not on the list

Click to expand...

Thanks, They should come out with their Homegrown list before their combine list. It interesting I was looking at the PDL stats for all the combine guys and many of them played for Carolina, Reading or Ventura County. Under the new HG rule those guys should get MLS teams since they might be competitive in 5 years time

BTW do you know if Ashani Fairclough, Adam Jahn and Martin Murphy are HG because there the next 3 guys who I'm surprised were not invited

BTW do you know if Ashani Fairclough, Adam Jahn and Martin Murphy are HG because there the next 3 guys who I'm surprised were not invited

Click to expand...

I would be surprised if they are HG just based on where they're from.

Fairclough is Jamaican and I'm pretty sure MLS doesn't have a team down there. Jahn is from the Sacramento area and Murphy is from the Raleigh area. It's possible they drove to the nearest MLS market, but it's doubtful.

I agree that Jahn has produced enough to warrant an invite. Murphy's exclusion isn't as much of an oversight, thought it wouldn't be a huge shock if he was invited. I don't know enough about Fairclough to have an opinion one way or the other.

Fairclough is Jamaican and I'm pretty sure MLS doesn't have a team down there. Jahn is from the Sacramento area and Murphy is from the Raleigh area. It's possible they drove to the nearest MLS market, but it's doubtful.

I agree that Jahn has produced enough to warrant an invite. Murphy's exclusion isn't as much of an oversight, thought it wouldn't be a huge shock if he was invited. I don't know enough about Fairclough to have an opinion one way or the other.

Click to expand...

Jahn only had one stop in the PDL with a club called Washington in 2010, Fairclough played in VSI Tampa for a few games and Murphy played with Reading and Carolina. The reason I thought Murphy would invited is he 79 games with UNC including 23 last season when they won the title. He also scored a goal this season from a direct free kick which I understand shouldn't be a factor but it shows a skill level that I think some of the 54 who were picked have never shown.

List is fine I got 49 of the 54 in my own top 100 including goalkeepers Brad Stuver, Larry Jackson, Daniel Withrow especially when Alex Blackburn and Jordan Godsey are also available.

They missed a few highly regarded defenders Barson, Konstanski and Wiet and I'm wondering if the MLS realize what crap seasons Marc Cintron and Jonathan Mendoza had this year. Also the Machael David thing kills me the guy was highly touted in 2009 and has been injured since and even at his best he'll be 24 in 2013 a 5'8 a midfielder with 12 shots in 66 college games and arguably UCSB was better off when he wasn't playing in the side.

Overall I'd say the selection was lazy but at the same time a good representation of what NCAA D1 had to offer this season.

Click to expand...

It's amazing how those three keepers got in over Godsey and Blackburn. Still puzzled at that decision...

Ives is reporting that MLS is working with several Africans looking to add them to the combine. The random internationals in the draft have been major busts so far, so it will be interesting to see how this goes.

Generation adidas
Deshorn Brown (contract to be extended)
Andrew Farrell (contract offered but not accepted as of this date)
Jason Johnson (contract to be extended)
Mikey Lopez (contract offered but not accepted as of this date)
Kekutah Manneh (contract signed)
Andrew Zimmerman (contract offered but not accepted as of this date)

Kekutah Manneh is an interesting one. In case people don't know about him, he's a Gambian that was scoring goals for fun in the Texas Division of the Development Academy for years. He's not coming from the NCAAs, but from the Austin Aztex.

Generation adidas
Deshorn Brown (contract to be extended)
Andrew Farrell (contract offered but not accepted as of this date)
Jason Johnson (contract to be extended)
Mikey Lopez (contract offered but not accepted as of this date)
Kekutah Manneh (contract signed)
Andrew Zimmerman (contract offered but not accepted as of this date)

Click to expand...

Ives reporting that Farrell and Zimmerman have both signed GA deals. Also he is reporting that seniors John Stertzer, Dillon Powers and Carlos Alvarez have already signed deals with league as well. Furthermore (he got a good amount of info today), he is hearing that Eriq Zavaleta and Andre Blake are now both being considered for GA deals.

Eriq Zavaleta signs GA deal to make the current announced class a total of 5 (including Farrell, Lopez, Zimmerman and Johnson) with announcements expected soon for Manneh and Brown so the final GA total seems to be 7 players.

Eriq Zavaleta signs GA deal to make the current announced class a total of 5 (including Farrell, Lopez, Zimmerman and Johnson) with announcements expected soon for Manneh and Brown so the final GA total seems to be 7 players.

Click to expand...

My experience from working the last 5 or 6 Combines is that any consensus #1 picks skip the Combine. Why risk getting injured right before the draft?

We also have the odd numbered year Combine/SuperDraft that often sees U.S. U-20s missing for most of the Combine, and often the SuperDraft itself . Actually,http://www.ussoccer.com/News/U-20-MNT/2013/01/U20-MNT-to-Hold-Training-Camp-in-Puebla.aspx
This cycle's January camp is in Puebla, Mexico so we definitely won't see the U-20s drive across Florida to take in one day of the Combine. It's possible that any U-20s will start at the Combine (on the 11th), then travel to Puebla, but miss the SuperDraft.

“I really don’t have a preference where I play, if it’s MLS, I’ll play in MLS, if it’s Mexico I’ll play in Mexico,” Gomez told TopDrawerSoccer.com. “I just want to play professional and get to that level of playing professionally, and then from there on see where my career takes me.”